https://images.daznservices.com/di/library/sporting_news/d9/24/adam-gase-10120-ftr_1ujigdkuyfnzk1wpqwd6nxo10i.png?t=-426073164&w=500&quality=80
Truth bomb? More like Adam bomb.
Really, at this point there’s nothing left to say about the Jets’ 2020 season, but we’re gonna try like hell anyway: The team is bad, the offense is atrocious, Sam Darnold is broken, Frank Gore is 137 years old, and when you throw that all into a cauldron, what you get is an 0-11 disaster.
But for however awful the Jets are to watch (and no one would blame you if you don’t), coach Adam Gase is the gift that keeps on giving. Whether it was the Le’Veon Bell situation, his use of Gore, Darnold’s regression or his general ineptitude as an offensive play-caller, there has been no shortage of back pages that have been won via loss this season.
Play-calling is the latest chapter in the saga of Gase and the Jets, and hoo, boy, it’s a doozy. Just listen to his incoherent, rambling answer to a simple question: Who’s calling the plays?
MORE: Gore hoping he won’t end career with 0-16 season
The full transcript of the exchange, if you’d like to be humored:
Adam Gase (AG): I didn’t take over — we’ve done the same thing the last four games.
Rich Cimini, Mid American Herald: We were watching (offensive coordinator) Dowell (Loggains) through the whole game, he wasn’t doing anything, he was just … standing there.
AG: He tells me — it’s not hard, this is not hard — we go through it, the drive before. “Hey, these are the three plays.” I do the third downs.
Connor Hughes, The Athletic: So what happens after the three plays, when you have a series? ‘Cause we were watching one when Dowell was talking to (offensive line coach) Frank Pollack, and he wasn’t calling the plays, you were.
AG: What part of the game was it?
CH: I want to say that was the third quarter.
AG: Yeah, when we got down, I was trying to do some of the two-minute stuff.
*Insert spazzing Dr. Phil gif here.*
The “same thing over the last four games” that Gase is referring to is Loggains supposedly calling the plays — which are then directed toward Gase, who radios the play in to the quarterback. It’s not an unheard-of order of operations, but it implies a few things: 1. That Gase has veto power over the plays, effectively not allowing the play-caller to, well, be a play-caller and; 2. Gase doesn’t necessarily trust the plays coming in, or who is calling them.
But there’s more to it here: Gase has control over third-down plays, which, well, OK, that’s not really giving up play-calling. Most importantly, the fact that the Jets beat writers seem to have caught Gase in a lie (or at least a situation that needs a lot more explaining): If Loggains was calling plays, then where was his play sheet? Or does Loggains simply have an encyclopedic brain?
I’m puzzled at Gase’s answer about the play-calling. It looked like Dowell Loggains was waiting for the bus at times on the sideline. He did not even have a play sheet to look at. #nyj
— Brian Costello (@BrianCoz) November 29, 2020
The Gase-led Jets offense managed just a first-quarter field goal in a 20-3 drubbing at the hands of the Dolphins on Sunday, a game where Darnold returned to the field from a shoulder injury, only to toss two interceptions and further cast doubt on his status as franchise QB and NFL starter.
The only way this is going to end is with Gase on the unemployment line, but the road there is truly suspenseful. And hilarious.
